Does getting lucky at the prom equate to more Winter Babies? What does that mean economically?
posted by Ruthless Bunny on Sep 23, 2009 - 36 comments

Let's Panic About Babies! "Fortunately for everyone in the whole wide world, Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy have created the only website that accurately explains the journey from morning sickness to third-degree tears to keeping that baby alive for a year–or more! LET’S PANIC ABOUT BABIES will serve as a salve to the mystery and degradation of this most female of challenges. Its authors may not have 'science' on their side, but what they do have is far more valuable: a heady mélange of female intuition, sentence-forming know-how, and the achingly vivid memories of their own gestational journeys and unending motherhoods. So join Alice and Eden as they tell you exactly what to think and feel and do on every one of your 2,681 days* of pregnancy. They know everything! * 'Science' would tell you that human gestation is actually, on average, 266 days. This is one of many ways in which science is terribly wrong." [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Aug 19, 2009 - 63 comments

Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? "...because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen."
posted by anotherpanacea on Jul 29, 2009 - 243 comments

Afterbirth for Dinner (Time Magazine, NSFW or appetite) [more inside]
posted by Ndwright on Jul 2, 2009 - 83 comments

Kinda sutra - a charmingly animated short in which people talk about childhood misconceptions about sex and childbirth. More on childhood sex misconceptions from Dan Savage 1, 2, 3. (pretty tame clip, but possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 13, 2009 - 55 comments

At Sammy's at 2016 Main, on September 8, a historic jam session occurred, an impromptu reunion of many of the city of New Orleans's finest musicians. Each player who walked in the door was much more than a mere musician that night -- they were an affirmation of life. Not only did their attendance indicate that they had survived the storm, but their collective presence also indicated that their music would survive, too.

The New Birth Brass Band (and friends) tears it the hell up in downtown Houston post-Katrina. The whole show is great, but if you're short on time, parts one and three are especially smoking.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas on Dec 14, 2008 - 3 comments

JS (Aged 5) She can't wake up.
Operator No? Is she breathing? Can you see her chest go up and down?
JS I can see her shoulders going ... I can see her doing [Makes breathing noises]
Operator She's breathing, is she? But you think she's having a fit.
JS Yeah, I think she is and ... I don't know what to do.

6 transcripts of 999 operators helping people cope with emergencies: a mother giving birth alone, a 5 year old whose mother is fitting, a mother and son trapped in a house fire, a brother and sister resuscitating their father, a husband saving his choking wife, and a neighbour saving his friend with an amputated arm
posted by roofus on Nov 29, 2008 - 43 comments

Shark Virgin Birth! Praise Jawsus! (punchline stolen from Halcyon) Meanwhile, in Dubai, they're so rich they can focus their attention on Sammy the Shark, and a museum in Hawaii is trying to dispel fears raised by recent shark sightings with an exhibition titled "Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived". And if you always wanted a shark of your own, contact Big Al. Just remember the words of Alby Singer.
posted by wendell on Oct 10, 2008 - 12 comments

Your unborn child as produce - You'll never look at chard the same way again.
posted by Ogre Lawless on Aug 20, 2008 - 49 comments

"Baby Lali with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday."
posted by auralcoral on Apr 18, 2008 - 52 comments

Did You Know 2.0 (Youtube 08:19) Facts about education, population, globalization.
posted by blue_beetle on Feb 13, 2008 - 6 comments

Amazing Birth (NSFW). One link youtube post, requires login for age verification, but it's worth it.
posted by alms on Jan 20, 2008 - 136 comments

Noelle can't stop giving birth.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jan 3, 2008 - 34 comments

Janmashtami: A celebration of Lord Krishna’s Birth.
posted by hadjiboy on Sep 8, 2007 - 14 comments

Ana Voog is spending the week nude online (NSFW, duh). Former leader of the long-standing Minneapolis Pop-Rock band The Blue Up? Rachel Olson reinvented herself as Ana Voog and became one of the first to put herself under near constant home surveillance online with her Anacam (wacky flash, NSFW). This August will mark her tenth anniversary online, making hers (by her own reckoning) the longest running home cam on the internet. To celebrate she's spending the week naked. Did I mention she's 35 weeks pregnant and planning to give birth online?
posted by nanojath on Jun 26, 2007 - 59 comments

Pregnant in America. A trailer from a documentary ("coming 2007") about contemporary US birth practices, which may not be best practices. The politics make for interesting reading. See also: Monty Python's The Miracle of Birth.
posted by kmennie on May 4, 2007 - 46 comments

virtual labor
posted by konolia on May 3, 2007 - 31 comments

Living With a Dying Baby. "Families can choreograph their child’s very brief life with their family . . . Sometimes they may have a matter of minutes, so they decide beforehand who can hold the baby, who will cut the umbilical cord, who will hold the baby when you know he is going to die."
posted by brain_drain on Mar 13, 2007 - 66 comments

Beyond First Aid: How to handle being pepper sprayed, How to help a woman who is giving birth, How to suture, How to survive a gunshot wound, etc.
posted by serazin on Feb 14, 2007 - 11 comments

Globally, there are about 105-107 boys born for every 100 girls. I was led to believe this was because men do stupid things that get themselves killed/injured. I wonder if this theory accounts for those times when men do something stupid that gets women killed/injured. (youTube link: video of a really stupid idea getting two women bruised up. If you laugh, it means you're going to hell.)
posted by Tryptophan-5ht on Jul 26, 2006 - 105 comments

The New "Science" of Siblings An amusing article from Time magazine by Jeffrey Kluger which reports that your siblings have more influece on your personality than any other group-- parents, peers, spouses, children, etc. My ex-wife thinks I'm sarcastic, combative, insensitive, etc. Do I get to blame my brothers and sisters for this now? Another article on this issue "The Science of Siblings". Apparently, they could have made me more likely to be gay too.
posted by notmtwain on Jul 9, 2006 - 28 comments

How Babies are Made in Germany. A book for children. (Possibly NSFW.)
posted by thebabelfish on Oct 23, 2005 - 56 comments

Outcasts in Their Own Villages "More than one million young women with the condition are scattered throughout the so-called fistula belt that stretches across the southern hem of the Sahara from Eritrea to Mali. Because of their severe incontinence and smell, many have been ostracized by their families and villages and live by themselves or with fellow fistula sufferers. They are the lepers of the desert." [also see]
posted by kliuless on Jun 16, 2005 - 15 comments

Good luck, blessings, positive thoughts, and an early mazel tov to Mathowie, Kay, and Fiona!
posted by digaman on May 2, 2005 - 92 comments

Girl Power or: Partnership status and the human sex ratio at birth: a paper by Karen Norberg

Could the sex of a child be influenced by the status of the parents' relationship at the time of conception? In a sample of 86,436 births in the United States, we find a small excess of sons among births to parents who were married or living with an opposite sex partner before the child's conception, compared to births to parents who were not. This is the first evidence that household arrangements can affect the human sex ratio at birth, and could explain the fall in the proportion of male births in some developed countries over the past thirty years.

(Data published on FirstCite registration required) via The Economist

(special note for mathowie: No word yet as to whether or not those single moms can also reliably produce offspring with an astigmatism.)
posted by lilboo on Oct 27, 2004 - 12 comments

Interesting article on the Japanese "social recession" (from the back pages of USA Today) "To an astonishing degree, the sexes are going their opposite ways in Japan. Young women are revolting against the traditional role of obedient housewife, opting instead to live at home and shop and socialize with girlfriends. Startled men are retreating into solitary ways. Check-ins at the country's famed 'love hotels' are even falling. As birthrates slip, a social crisis looms."
posted by Prospero on Jun 3, 2004 - 38 comments

Can a Pharmacist Refuse To Dispense Birth Control? "Neil Noesen, a relief pharmacist at the Kmart in Menomonie, Wis., was the only person on duty one day in 2002 when a woman came in to refill her prescription for the contraceptive Loestrin FE. According to a complaint filed by the Wisconsin department of regulation and licensing, Noesen refused because of his religious opposition to birth control. He also declined to transfer the prescription to a nearby pharmacy and refused once again when the woman returned to the store with police...."
posted by Postroad on Jun 1, 2004 - 102 comments

Grin And Bear It, Woman! Think Of England! Caesarean births in the U.K. should be severely curtailed, say the medical mandarins. Germaine Greer says, in a cracking column, that the new guidelines are misogyny pure and simple. Is it just my impression (think of American Pie-type teenage movies; advertising; "guy lit") or are hatred of women and beery, bozo celebrations of indifference to the feminine sex on the up and up?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 28, 2004 - 64 comments

Water birth is an alternative to standard hospital labor where the woman gives birth in a pool of water. Many hospitals/birth centers now offer the option of a water birth, or the mother-to-be can choose from a wide variety of birthing pools for labor at home, usually assisted by a midwife/nurse with experience in waterbirth. There are many benefits of a gentle introduction to the world by being born in water, and the testimonials make it sound like a great option. Note: some links may be NSFW. [more inside]
posted by widdershins on Dec 22, 2003 - 17 comments

Woman gives birth on a Boston train while refusing help from onlookers. While the story of the birth is unusual, what interests me is that her two other children were placed in protective custody. Was this warranted? [more inside]
posted by widdershins on Aug 1, 2003 - 19 comments

Woman gives birth to her own grandchildren. This just seems wrong.
posted by skwm on Oct 16, 2002 - 52 comments

Welcome to the world, Adam Pearl.
posted by crabwalk on May 30, 2002 - 51 comments

Mothers who wait to have a baby are at risk of evolutionary extinction. "If you want to see your line persist, then it's probably optimum to start reproducing in your early to mid-20s". According to this 220 year statistical model late-reproducing women [genetic lineage] declined as a proportion of the population from 11 percent to about 5 percent
posted by stbalbach on May 27, 2002 - 8 comments

Maybe you DO have to be born in France! After much debate, and worldwide press, the French Parliament has decided that you were supposed to be born. Glad to know that. So much for the worst FPP ever.
posted by dwivian on Jan 14, 2002 - 10 comments

Avoiding Wrongful Birth Lawsuits , ob/gyn's in France have decided just to "not know" about problems before birth. So, no more ultrasounds. Original wrongful birth thread can be found here.
posted by dwivian on Jan 10, 2002 - 4 comments

Pollution Linked to Birth Defects in Recent Study. There is no better example of "terrorism" than maiming children simply to further bloat the wallets of the rich. Of course, our fearless right-wing leaders are right on top of the problem.
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Dec 29, 2001 - 32 comments

Evolutionary psychology anyone? It seems that more males are born during (and just after) wars and more females are born during peacetime. Adaptive group evolution or just speculative extrapolation? Jim Holt of Linguafranca explains.
posted by kliuless on Jul 1, 2001 - 11 comments

Sorry guys, but birth is women's business. Call me a stickler. But the notion of male involvement in the nine very long months of pregnancy has, in some circles, gone way over the top.
posted by murray_kester on Aug 28, 2000 - 9 comments